Head of School Christopher Nikoloff culminated his “Six Great Ideas” Cum Laude Lecture Series on March 23 with his final talk on Justice.
The series, which began in September, was held in the Nichols Auditorium during long lunch and included six separate discussions on Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Equality, Freedom, and finally Justice.

“These have been the best six hours of my year,” Nikoloff said. “I never expected a large group just because everyone’s so busy – but we had enough for a class or discussion.”

During the discussion, Nikoloff defined and explored four dimensions of Justice: fairness, rights, laws, and the common good. Afterwards, he engaged students in philosophical discussions regarding the justice of laws and the breakdown of the four elements.

Sarah Howells (11), who attended the talk on Justice, felt “the lecture [was] extremely thought-provoking. I appreciated that Mr. Nikoloff applied the deep philosophical concepts to our life at Harker, which made the subject matter more tangible and understandable.”

For the small group of students who attended all six discussions, Nikoloff gifted each person with a certificate and a copy of Mortimer J. Adler’s novel Six Great Ideas, off of which the lectures were based.

Sean Nierat (10), one among that select group, “really liked the presentations in general.”

“Mr. Nikoloff’s first [announcement] at school meeting really interested me, and I wanted to come. Equality was probably my favorite,” he said.

Next year, Nikoloff hopes to do a lecture series on the ideas of Jiddu Krishnamurti, a spiritual and philosophical writer and speaker.

“He’s very worldly, and he has a lot of basic concepts that resonate with teenagers,” Nikoloff said. Krishnamurti explores fundamental ideas on what it really means to see and listen, for example.

He said, “just finding out that some students had an interest in these topics, hearing their ideas and interacting with them, and having them know me on campus a little better made it the most memorable for me.”